When Villarreal came out of the hat for Juve’s round of 16 tie, there would have been a collective sigh of relief. Without belittling the Spanish outfit – who no doubt at all will give Allegri’s team a stiff test – there were far harder ties that could have come out. The fact Juve won Group H beating current holders Chelsea into second place played a big part of course, but no one should take the double headers against Villarreal for granted.
The tie is a hard one to pick, something reflected by the odds, and those betting on Unibet are very likely to see both sides playing the role of underdog and favourite as gameday approaches. Here we look at the relative state of the two teams, as well a look back at how the fixture played out in the clubs’ only previous encounter.
The Current State of Play
We don’t need reminding of where Juve is at this stage of proceedings. The recent stalemate against Milan summed up the season in a nutshell: solid without being spectacular, and offering too little upfront. But how have their Spanish opponents fared so far this season? Not great in short. At the time of writing, they sit in 7th position, two points behind Real Sociedad who occupy the last European place, despite having played a game more. Unai Emery’s side has been playing catch up after a horrendous start to the season, a start that saw them having to wait until almost the end of September before picking up their first win in the league. In their first seven games, they failed to find the back of the net in four of them.
Performances and results have picked up though, and they will be looking to secure a Europa League qualifying position as a minimum.
At the time of writing (with just hours of the transfer window remaining), Villarreal have had a very quiet window, and their main objective will be to keep hold of Dutch winger Arnaut Danjuma in the face of reported interest from Liverpool among others.
Key Players
As already mentioned, Villarreal should not be taken lightly. They are the current Europa League holders after beating Manchester United on penalties. Their manager, Emery has forged a career by winning European cup competitions. They may not have world-class stars, at least on paper, but they have players all over the pitch who can score goals. Centre forward Gerard Moreno is the current top scorer with 11, but other players have contributed, and contributed significantly. The aforementioned Danjuma has scored 9 times, central midfielder Manu Trigueros 7 times and Alberto Moreno has notched up 6 from left-back. Five other players have scored three or more. Compare that to Juventus.
Head to Head
The two sides have only played once before, something that is perhaps not as surprising as it at first appears, owing to the Yellow Submarine’s relative late entry into top tier of European competition. That solitary encounter was a friendly, played in Turin on 7th August 2009. Obviously very little can be drawn from the match, but for the record, Villarreal came away 4 – 1 victors, despite a goalless first 45 minutes
Record in the Champions League
The Spanish side has played 34 times in the Champions League, winning 9, drawing 12 and losing 13, scoring 31 goals along the way, while conceding 40. They made it as far as the semi-finals in 2006, losing to Arsenal, and to the quarter-finals three years later, again going out against the North London club. They made it to the round of 16 this year courtesy of their second-place finish in Group F, where they were up against Manchester United, Atalanta and Young Boys.
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